Advent 2, 2021


Preparing for Advent, the Season of Preparation

We are ending the liturgical year on Sunday, Year B and approaching a new year, Year C. Naturally we are looking ahead and seeing if we are ready. The anomaly is that Advent starts that year which is itself a time of preparation. So this Sunday we are preparing to prepare!

The key in all of this is to begin Advent with a different or changed mindset and a resolve for doing. Here are a few steps from BeliefNet:

1. Have a  proper mindset – Be ready to stop in your busy tracks and embrace the season of Advent and, most importantly, its purpose. The Advent message is “deliverance from oppression and bondage, to those who have much and those who have nothing..” The message of Advent is that, whatever our circumstance in life, Jesus Christ was born to be with us wherever we are. We have to be ready mentally to hear it.

2. Prepare a room at the Inn. Your heart is where Christ wishes to dwell and Advent is the perfect time to make room in it for His presence. If your heart is filled with unforgiveness, it has no room for Christ.

“We need to uncover that place this Advent where we can be silent, reflective, and prayerful. During this time of waiting, our eyes, ears, and minds can adjust to the radiant presence of God’s love for us in Jesus Christ.”

Read more…


The Wonderful Season of Advent!

The name “Advent” actually comes from the Latin word adventus which means “coming.” It is a reminder of how the Jewish nation waited for the Messiah and how Christians are now waiting for the return of Christ.

Advent which begins this Sunday Nov. 29 is like a breath of fresh air -a new church year, a new set of Gospel readings from Mark, and the anticipation of the birth of Christ.

The Advent season is a time of preparation that directs our hearts and minds to Christ’s second coming at the end of time and also to the anniversary of the Lord’s birth on Christmas. It blends together a penitential spirit, very similar to Lent, a liturgical theme of preparation for the Second and Final Coming of the Lord, called the Parousia, and a joyful theme of getting ready for the Bethlehem event.

The Advent wreath, four candles on a wreath of evergreen, is shaped in a perfect circle to symbolize the eternity of God. The Advent Wreath is beautiful and evocative reminder of the life-giving qualities of light. The evergreens used in the wreath are reminders of ongoing life, even in the face of death.

There are 4 candles, one for each week in Advent, are used with one larger white candle in the middle as the Christ candle. During each Sunday of the Advent season, we focus on one of the four virtues Jesus brings us: Hope, Love, Joy and Peace. Three of the candles are purple. This is the color of penitence and fasting as well as he color of royalty to welcome the Advent of the King.

The Third candle is pink, a color of joy, the joy that Jesus is almost here and fasting is almost order. Gaudete Sunday (from the Latin meaning “rejoice”) which is taken from Philippians 4:4-5, the Entrance Antiphon of the day.

Advent begins in a season of darkness but using the Advent wreath we see light winning over darkness. Lighting candles is a way we can keep time in Church And as the season passes, and another candle is lit each week, light finally wins out over darkness with the turn of the solstice in the stars and the birth of Christ on the ground.

At the center of the wreath is a white candle, which is called the Christ Candle. This candle is lit on Christmas Eve as a reminder that Jesus, the light of the world, has been born and has come to dwell with us.

It is a season of waiting, of rest but also a time to find new beginnings. Since the 900s Advent has been considered the beginning of the Church year. It is antidote for our society’s frantic behavior during the holiday season. There is so much in the world that tells you, you are not enough or you haven’t do enough before Christmas but you have to find out during Advent that you are enough.

The first week of Advent is all about hope. Lamentations 3: 21-24: “Yet this I call to mind, and therefore I have hope: Because of the Lord’s great love we are not consumed, for his compassions never fail. They are new every morning; great is your faithfulness. I say to myself, “The Lord is my portion; “therefore I will wait for him.” (NIV).

The altar changes during Advent to represent the new season, particularly in the use of color. Today, many churches have begun to use blue instead of purple, as a means of distinguishing Advent from Lent. Blue also signifies the color of the night sky or the waters of the new creation in Genesis 1. Blue emphasizes the season is also about hope and anticipation of the coming of Christ. Christ is about transformation as the sky changes from dark to light filling our lives with grace.

Advent Traditions

Advent Wreath


A Family Advent

1. Make Your Own Advent Playdough Wreath at Home!

The link

2. Family Prayer for the lighting of the candle

Each week remember one of the virtues Jesus brings us – Hope, Love, Joy and Peace as you light the candle.

3. Antiphons for an Advent Calendar

An antiphon (“voice”) is a short chant in Christian ritual, sung like a refrain in a song. Antiphons were written with pieces of the Psalms and other verses from the Hebrew Scriptures. They also express deep theological convictions!

The singing of Antiphons (as sung by in early Christian communities by the end of the 5th century) had its root in the Synagogue. Early Christians borrowed the Jewish traditions of chanting psalms and of singing hymns together.

We have an Advent Calendar with one antiphon for each day


Advent

Advent 1

Advent in 2 minutes Check out this Youtube video

Advent in 1 minute– A 2015 video from St. Mary’s Cypress

Advent is about waiting – Advent waiting is expectant. Advent waiting requires making space. Advent waiting is hopeful.

Explore Advent, Part 1– Over the next 4 Sundays there will be a presentation each week focusing on that week’s scriptures, art and commentary and how they demonstrate the themes of advent. Let’s get started with Advent 1.

Advent is the time when we change to a different year in the Lectionary. This year we move from Year B to Year C and from a concentration on the Gospel of Mark to Luke.

Here is an introduction to the Gospel of Luke. Here is a shorter one “Living the Good News” There are several articles which are a general introduction to Luke on the web: 1. Shortest from christianity.about.com 2. Longer from the Catholic Bishops 3. Longest from a Catholic portal. Each of the readings is covered separately

Interested in the Church calendar ? Matthew’s interest about time in First Advent lends itself to understand how we measure time.

Collected Advent resources

1. Advent resources from the Episcopal Church Foundation.

2. From the Episcopal Church

3. From the Diocese of California

4. Advent at home

5. Create your own Advent Calendar

The Season of Advent is alive with colors, candles, wreaths and song. David Bratcher has written a wonderful article on Advent traditions.

There are several articles/presentations about the infancy narratives 1. Brief summary between Matthew and Luke  2. Longer comparison

Advent is a time of music Here is a link to National Cathedral’s Advent Lessons and Carols on Dec. 1, 2019


Advent 2

Explore Advent, Part 2

“Advent is a time to look for “desert places”: the place of solitude, the place of true silence in which we can become fully awake to our sin and God’s forgiving grace which alone can heal it.”-Br. Robert L’Esperance

This week we focus on John the Baptist through scripture, art and commentary. Let’s move to  Advent 2.

John the Baptist

 

 

 

John the Baptist presentation.

John the Baptist in art

 

 

St. Nicholas

 

 

 

St Nicholas Day is December 6. 

 

Here is a presentation that provides the background of this saint who has had a colorful and varied history over 1800 years.


Arts and Faith- Advent 2, relating art and scripture

Mattia Preti’s St. John the Baptist Preaching shows John in the wilderness, sharing his message with a small crowd of captivated followers. He is surrounded by symbols that invite us into his story. The red garment that envelops half of his body brings to mind the martyrdom he will endure. The staff and banner are signs of his prophetic role heralding the coming of Christ, and the lamb at the bottom center of the scene echoes John’s announcement of Christ as the Lamb of God.

The broken tree stump that St. John leans on is also telling us a story. Its trunk is almost wide and solid enough to be an altar. This seen together with the red cloth and the lamb subtly evokes sacrifice: the story of Abraham and Isaac perhaps, but more clearly the cross itself, the ultimate tree of sacrifice. The trunk is dead and broken, its branches split and severed, but John’s body leaning on it gives it life. It is as if John’s torso and extended arm become the living extension of the tree, giving a seemingly exhausted trunk new life and purpose. In this, the image invites us to reflect on the power of the life-giving Word of God, which St. John is heralding.

Another interesting detail is the angel in the top right of the scene, directly engaging the viewer with his gaze. The angel’s direct gaze makes him the storyteller. This is by no accident, as in Scripture, angels are messengers of God. Luke’s Gospel for the Second Sunday of Advent tells us that the Word of God came to John in the desert, and Preti gives us an angel, a herald of the Word of God, to show this and the divine source animating St. John’s work. But as the angel looks at us square on, his presence is also a call to the viewer to both accept the Word and to share it. This Second Sunday of Advent, we do not simply hear about the prophet John; in hearing the Word ourselves, we are called to live prophetically and to prepare the way all around us.